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Affordable housing

In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged over 300,000 homes along the US Gulf Coast; of those, 70 percent were affordable to low-income households. Today, stymied by an uneven and often incompetent recovery effort, many residents are still struggling to rebuild.

Oxfam’s immediate response to the hurricanes has grown into a five-year, $12 million program in Mississippi and Louisiana, which focuses on safe and affordable housing as well as worker and immigrant rights. The program combines financial support to key partner organizations with on-the-ground technical support.

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Host an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet® event
Raise awareness and help fund Oxfam's work by hosting a Hunger Banquet® in your community! Few experiences bring to life the inequalities in our world more powerfully than an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet® event. Organizers and participants alike can experience firsthand how our decisions affect others in the world.
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OXFAMExchange Fall 2008
A root revolution in Cambodia
US Gulf Coast Recovery Program Fact Sheet
An overview of Oxfam America's continuing effort to rebuild the Gulf Coast
Working together to end poverty and injustice
An overview of Oxfam America and our approach to poverty relief and lasting social change.
More publications
A Portrait of Louisiana
Louisiana Human Development Report 2009
Building Common Ground
How shared attitudes and concerns can create alliances between African-Americans and Latinos in a post-Katrina New Orleans
A Portrait of Mississippi
Mississippi Human Development Report 2009
Mirror on America
How the state of Gulf Coast recovery reflects on us all—Oxfam's report on the status of Gulf Coast recovery three years later.
More research
Oxfam America Organizing Guide
Tips for taking action in your community
Oxfam America House Party Guide
Tools for hosting a high-impact event
More tools for activists
Sharon's story
Sharon Hanshaw helps women speak out and prepare for future storms in post-Hurricane Katrina Biloxi, MS
A house for Miss Betty
An innovative housing program in the US Gulf Coast led by Oxfam America partner TRAC is taking housing in flood-prone areas to new heights.
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A new concept takes shape and offers hope for residents of the Gulf that future hurricanes might inflict less, if any, property damage.

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MIT architecture students design a new housing concept for the Gulf Coast that combines affordability with hurricane-ready sturdiness, and ease of construction.

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